Export help please. Youtube is killing me

Hello everyone, this is my first post so please be kind . Ok so I have struggled with youtube settings for a long time, over the last week I have exported my vids in a huge amount of different formats all of which when I upload them to Youtube I have some pixelating going on. I tried converting my HD vids with AnyVideoConverter and changed the bit rate from 3000, 5000, 8000, 12000 all with the same problem. I have changed the frame rate, kept it the same, converted it to mp4, mov, all kinds of formats and they all have the same issue. The Youtube uploader seems to have the most issues with this, so I have played around with all kinds of formats. Here is a good example of the pixelateions I am talking about. Some parts are crisp, smooth and look awesome while some are totally pixelated.

Now here are my latest in 8000 bit rates and you can see
(21 secs)

I just don't know what I am doing wrong. Over the last week I have come close to giving up and just going out to fly a kite. Kites are cool and all, but would love to be done with this issue. I have struggled with this for years now and I am so frustrated (insert angry face here). In every single video I create there is some form of it, this is something that happened with my older versions of FCP as well as FCPx. If you happen to have any idea what I can do please let me know, I would be extremely thankful to you and you will be given great karma for a very long time.
Cheers mate

Hi
Have you just tried using Compressor?
I used to hate it, but since the new UI version came out I think its brilliant.

Just use the default YouTube compression settings. Works great for me.

Also what are you viewing the YouTube footage on?

YouTube's recommended specs in case you need them.
support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en

Note their recommendations of CABAC which can help a bit over CAVLC that some encoders default to.
Also note the use of High Profile.
These settings weren't available in earlier versions of Compressor.

I'd second the new Compressor and making a custom preset instead of using Apple's.
Apple has greatly improved their H.264 encoding. It's nearly as good as x264 and better than MainConcept (common to Adobe encoders for example).

Export a ProRes full resolutions file. Upload that to YouTube. While it is uploading, go fly a wicked cool stunt kite. I love my stunt kites. They tons of fun when I'm waiting for stuff and junk.

Ben, are you really uploading a full prores master file? Even a short 1080p master could easily be 3 to 10 GB file size with a bitrate of somewhere between 200 and 500mbps.

Jez,

I feel your pain. I am having the exact same issue with YT. Please check out this thread, it will not solve your problem, but will give some insight:

www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/...can-you-look-at-this

I don't think YT likes water or anything that has a boat-load (no pun) of motion, since this is happening with water on my video as well. Tom and Ben have offered some good suggestions and comments. This just could be YT encoders and they are what they are. It was suggested to try Vimeo, which I did not since I don't have a paid account yet. I tried every setting per the groups suggestions but no luck.

I did not try uploading a ProRes master file directly to YT, because even my 7 minute video would take an eternity to upload. HOWEVER, I would do this if I knew that it worked, so maybe opportunity knocks. I just ran out of steam.

Please let us know how you do.

Jonathan

You haven't told us HOW your exporting yet though?

File>Share>Master File>Settings (Try setting it to Source - Apple ProRes 422

Then like I said, try the YouTube 1080p settings in the latest Compressor

Export a full ProRes master and run it through Handbrake.
10Mbps at 720p should just about handle your moving water footage OK.

Ok, thanks guys.
1. Coffee King, thank you for your reply. I tried compressor using the standard YT settings and got this

Note 6seconds pixels, 10 secs, you can see it turn on from being clear at 51 secs.

2. cseeman thank you for the info. I tried these formats with still some pixels going on.

3. BenB Kites are cool, but so are cats falling off tables. That's something youtube needs more of.

4. dgwvideo yep agreed, that would take forever. As the sandlot would say F-OR-EVVV-EEERR

5. Jonathan Levin, this makes sense. All my water vid has the same issues. It could be YT being a pain in the boat. What a boatload of problems YP has caused. Such a boat.

6. ok I was using 264 but I have tried proress 422 with audio and vid and what you mentioned....
File>Share>Master File>Settings (Try setting it to Source - Apple ProRes 422
Then like I said, try the YouTube 1080p settings in the latest Compressor
The result appeared to be the worst I deleted it right away as it appeared terrible. Boo

7. Duncan Craig still issues similar to what coffee king suggested.

So basically after all this is said and done, I think that the best option is send it straight to the compressor. Still crap but slightly better.

Thank you for all your help, it seems YT really does not like water and struggles to handle it, but I have problem solved with all of your suggestions as you can see.

Compressor should handle it ok, too.

For larger projects, I'll export a Master File, Web Hosting, H.264, faster encode, never had an issue.

I also use Vimeo more than YouTube, cause they handle the encoding much better. But even my YT uploads, never had any issues.

Your uploaded video is no longer available so guessing even more than normal.

Often time, I've found the third party converters create as many issues as they solve.

Did you try simply Share > You Tube? By and large, the presets do a petty decent job

As you probably know, YT re-encodes the stuff we upload, which explains the advice to upload the greeter amount of data contained in a Pro Res file. The downside is that it may take a while.

BTW, the H.264 video sharing presets for 1080p in FCP (and Compressor) are a pretty hefty 20Mb per sec bit rate. Not as much (obviously) as a Pro Res file, but still quite a lot of data.

Russ

Can I suggest that you stick 20 seconds of your most active footage to wetransfer or a cloud service and share the link with us.

Ok, clearly this is a FCP problem and not just a Youtube water problem
Have a look at the significant difference in the pixelations problems that I have in my videos

(15 secs 23 secs basically all over the place here)

and this video.



Now I am not worried about the slomtion, just the way my footage looks with pixels all over it and it is not very smooth at all. On my timeline is looks great, fantastic even. When it is exported it looks great. Then I upload it and it looks terrrrrrrible, almost as bad I look on a Sunday morning after a night out chasing tail throughout a city nightclub only to find myself waking up on a seedy street corner with a fist full of dollar bills and a distinct smell of regret lingering over me. But enough of me...

Basically YT is killing my video quality. Why is it just me, what am I doing wrong. DO I need to whisper sweet nothings into it's digital ear or should I quit and learn to play a musical instrument.
Seriously, YT sux big fat donkey BA$%S here. What am I doing wrong.
Compressor, same problem
Handbreak, Same problem
YT export straight from FCP, same problem
Share youtube, same problem.
Direct from high quality 720 file, same problem.
Boo to YT. I will buy whoever fixes my problem a dinner out at a local Sydney restaurant, possibly a Scottish Family Restaurant (Think hard for this one)

What Duncan said, it would be great if we could test a short section of the original footage. If you could upload a short clip to some file sharing service and post the link so we could download it.

Did you try Ben's suggestion to upload to Vimeo.? Their encoding is very good.

BTW, I'm not sure how much benefit you would get by running this through Compressor. As I mentioned earlier, the default 1080P settings in FCP X are pretty high at 20 Mbps. Compressor might let you increase that up to about about 25 Mbps.. Craig noted that YT recommends CABAC entropy, which recent versions of Compressor can do. However, the file produced by the default settings for FCP also is CABAC.

Russ

One thing to try is to wait and see if it improves, others have said that youtube does a low quality encode when first uploaded and than later does a higher quality pass. An interesting question would be, do some channels get higher processing priority/better prossesing?

Also, you could try contacting someone who uploads a lot of white-water videos (ie. 'planet canoe' etc..)
and ask what the specs for their video files are and than try to duplicate that with a custom compressor preset,
or if they have any tips for higher quality youtube uploads.
A lot of you-tubers are friendly folks who would be glad to help (thou i'm sure there are some that aren't) so it wouldn't hurt to try.

Hey kind FCP folk. I have now tried and failed with this for weeks now, I am thinking that my computer might take an unexpected flight through my window very soon. Followed very closely by my sanity.


Here is an example of the video uploaded to dropbox. Great quality, only about 73mb and it looks awesome. BUT here is that exact same video uploaded to YT.

www.dropbox.com/sh/tyb21g7iidrdb7g/AAB9b...mqB4ryAwxQfmLma?dl=0
Note the playback feature shows it pixelated however if downloaded it shows it is fine.

For some reason, YT loves to kick me repeatedly in the junk, and quite frankly I am a little tired of having bruised and sore man parts.

Here is vimeo showing that the video is quite ok in HD. Not fantastic compared to the original format but still way better than YT.
vimeo.com/14481726
Here is the same video with YT
Just terrible. So bad.

I understand Vimeo is better quality and use all my videos on both youtube and vimeo however the views via YT are much bigger and I am required for my work to post these on YT and really want to find out why YT continues to not appreciate me. I tried taking YT out for a drink and a good night, but she keeps leading me on with nothing to show for my efforts except wine thrown on my brand new Calvin Klein shirt and a slap in the face.

Time for me to start considering hacking in to the YT mainframe and pulling it's heart out while it is still living so it can see it's own heart beating for just a moment before it dies a painful and public death.

Still would love to hear what I am doing wrong, I will be your best friend if you can help me. I promise. HELP

The Vimeo video is a different video than the youtube video (from the links you supplied).

anybody familiar with compression & codecs knows:
bubbling waters makes any codec scream.

YT delivers your video in 720 with 3mbps - which is, obviously, not enough .... you uploaded as h264/9mbps - which fullfills YT recommendations, but imho, is no good 'base' for another conversion, YT applies to any upload.

What is your recording format, res/fps/bitrate?
What are your project settings?
Have you tried proRes as uplod format to YT?

keep in mind: compression loss 'multiplies', when the bare eye says "lookin' awesome!" , the next 'gen' will show you whats gone

Jez,

I don't think this is a problem on your end. Just seems like issue with encoding while uploading to YT et al. Out of our control unfortunately.

The one thing I have not tried is uploading a pro res master file of just the problem area and see what that looks like though it will take a long time to upload.

Jonathan

Upload the whole thing as a ProRes to YT, let it run overnight, see what happens.